Ok, it's mid January. I went to the Marlboro Show which really was a flat line event. As I said in the previous post a person new to the sport will feel like it's Christmas morning but the longer that you live a fly fishers life the older this show gets. I did pick up a collection of Theodore Gordon's work and a fly tying tool that is now discontinued. That is that!!
January is a good time to make sense of that growing inventory of fly tying material that we just can't seem to get enough of even if we don't use half of it. While plowing through the boxes I found a rust colored hares mask that seemed like a good idea to have two years ago. The short story is that I never used it! The long story is that a light went on in that brain of mine that this color/texture would make great thorax material for some soft hackle flies that have been drifting around in my subconscious. (Yes, flies and trout drift in my subconscious) The above photo is the result of these ramblings.
The Partridge and Orange has worked very well for me for over 30 years. The body was always made up of orange silk or orange floss. The thorax (I tie most of my soft hackles with a thorax) was usually olive or gray. They worked but just never looked RIGHT! The rust colored hares ear is perfect. I'll ask my friend Rodney Flagg if he knows of a rust colored dye that I can use on that mountain of Australian possum which I think will work even better.
Let's go back to the body - I dumped silk and floss years ago and now tie my soft hackle bodies with 3/0 kevlar. This "glass" actually has a waxy glow to it which just beats the look of the older materials. Try it out!!
I downloaded my license and am ready for the 2011 season. Let's hope it stops snowing!!
Ken
6 comments:
Sat and watched some salt ties i want to do, learned lots of terminology and enjoyed meeting some people (gotta get to labrador!!!).
Bought myself a Ross CLA 5 from Scott at Bears Den to go with my St Croix. I can see what you are saying about this probably being the same over and over again each year.. but until my supplies are overloaded, I will have fun there.
Rookie,
You are HOOKED!!!! And that's a very good thing!!
Ken
Ken,
Does kevlar come in a full set of colors?? What color of partridge or grouse do us use?
Bill
Bill,
Kevlar comes in all colors as far as I know. I always work with with dark colored partridge/grouse. I hate that pale gray color on that bird. Nymphs and emerging flies are always darker than the emmerging dun. That darker soft hackle is closer to the color of an emerging fly...all of the time!!
Ken
Brought my nephew to the show for the first time and wowed him! He tied his first fly (green woolly bugger) at the Central Ma TU booth under the patient guidance of Paul Bakstran.
Then we went for "Casting 101" at the FFF booth.
This kid is already deadly with a spinning rod but he quickly saw the advantages of FFing.
You will see us fishing Rt-9 down to Bondsville in a couple of months.
I don't know who had more fun, him or me!
Bottom line, be the show guide for a kid and you will never be bored.
HamOnFly (best name ever),
Good to see that you are introducing your nephew to this form of fishing. It's also good to see that your nephew was "deadly with a spinning rod" before your introduction. There seems to be many who are new to fly fishing who don't have much of a background to general fishing. As a kid I fished for pickerel with a daredevil spoon, fished for perch with a worm or a small shiner or spent the dusk hours plying the bottom for horned pout before my mother would sound the alarm to get home NOW!!!(we lived one good "YELL" from my favorite spot) And then I would catch hell for having mud caked sneakers BUT it seemed OK because I caught a lot of fish!!
These are all good memories. I hope that your nephew, you and all others can say the same!
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